‘Claiming the Future’

Mr Deputy Presiding Officer, colleagues, friends

It is good to be here in Wales this morning. It is certainly better than being here last month, when so many people in Wales were celebrating the 30th anniversary of that famous Gareth Edwards try. I refer, of course, to his try in 1973 at Cardiff Arms Park against my team, the All Blacks - a try which many believe is still the greatest in world rugby. But it is a great pleasure to be here today. For many of my compatriots in New Zealand this was indeed the 'land of our fathers'.

It is also wonderful to be in this National Assembly building, and a special honour to be speaking in the Chamber itself. It is fitting that this workshop, with its title Claiming the Future, should begin in the Chamber of one of the UK's newly devolved bodies.

Devolution has changed the political process within Wales: so many important decisions that were taken remotely, outside Wales, are now made locally, by elected representatives who are accountable to the people of Wales through the ballot box. This is the most fundamental element of a democracy and something we should therefore value. I know that you are now approaching the end of your first session: I wish you well with your elections in May. Mr Deputy Presiding Officer, please thank the Members of the Assembly for allowing us to use this chamber to open our workshop this morning.
Mr Chairman, ever since I became Commonwealth Secretary-General I have tried to ensure that the Commonwealth Secretariat gives a higher priority to its work with young people, that the association as a whole places a higher value on the contribution that young people make to our society and that we all do more to enable young people to do more.

We should not be shy about what we have been able to do. Through the Commonwealth Youth Programme we have had some success at promoting and sustaining valuable and extensive youth networks across the Commonwealth, so that lessons learned in one country can be passed on to others.

We have a good record in helping governments work constructively with young people. Directly and indirectly we support youth training - for instance in information technology - and the development of youth enterprises; and our Commonwealth Diploma on Youth Work is offered to youth workers in 40 countries through 24 universities.

Across the Commonwealth we have had some success in our efforts to help in the development of young people.

But for all this - and this is no criticism of the Commonwealth Youth Programme - we in the Commonwealth need to do more, with others, to empower young people and to give them the tools to play an active and constructive role in their communities.

Indeed the young leaders of the Commonwealth Youth Programme, several of whom are here this morning, say this to me all the time.

And one of the areas in which we do not do enough is that of promoting the participation of young people in the democratic process. That is why we are holding this workshop this weekend.

I look forward to your recommendations and proposals for Commonwealth action.

For my part, I want to use this opportunity this morning to make two appeals to the people of the Commonwealth.

The first is to the young people of the Commonwealth. My appeal is that they:

- register to vote and then use that vote in elections: elections matter, everyone should vote; and that

- in between elections our young people should try as hard as possible to be effective and active citizens, taking care of the world around us.

I know that voter abdication is a signal of an all too common attitude: "I don't care, I'm not unhappy, so why should I vote? In any case, one vote can't make a difference, so why bother?" Clearly, this is the wrong attitude. Every citizen in a democracy should help to make it a must to vote.

The competition for political power is never easy - ask anyone who has been in office - but it can be won through ideas, energy, activism and encouraging the inclusion of people of all ages.

We in the Commonwealth continually make the point that, however important elections are, democracy is not an event. It is a process, and young people must be involved in all stages of that process.

That is my message to the young people of the Commonwealth. And I hope that in the next few days the workshop will be successful in finding new ways of getting that message across.

My second appeal is to the rest of us. Essentially it is that we must make it possible for young people to be the effective citizens I have just been urging them to be.

You will know that some of the research conducted by the UK Electoral Commission referred to the importance of young people 'having their say'.

But merely 'having their say' is not enough. Young people also have to know that:

- when they are 'having their say' the rest of us are listening; and that
- 'having their say' will actually have an impact.
- Their vote is equal to the vote of the Prime Minister or the President

Young people need to feel that when they 'have their say' government, parliament, our political parties - indeed all our democratic institutions - will respond. Young people need to feel that they have influence over the world they live in and the business of making and unmaking its arrangements.

At the moment too many young people feel precisely the opposite. Young people feel passionately about the challenges that confront our world.

But when they need to feel included in the business of tackling those challenges they actually feel - and often are - excluded.

You've heard it all before: "Young people are irresponsible, they lack wisdom and experience; they don't pay taxes, etc."

There has been considerable attention in recent years about the problem of social and economic exclusion. Well, there is a problem of political exclusion too. It needs to be tackled. And it needs to be tackled by throwing open the doors and windows of our political institutions so that young people are encouraged to participate at every level, and to be genuinely active citizens.

That, Mr Chairman, is the challenge for the rest of us. It is a difficult challenge but that, after all, is the way of history.

Mr Chairman, I wish to acknowledge the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association for working together with us in the Commonwealth Secretariat to put on this event.

I wish to express the appreciation of our two organisations to the British Youth Council, the Electoral Commission and National Assembly of Wales for all that you have done, all that I am told you are going to do this weekend and especially for the arrangements you have made for Monday's event, bringing together the workshop participants and some of the young people of Wales.

Most of all, I wish to thank the workshop participants, who have in many cases travelled very long distances to be here today.

I wish you well in your discussions between now and Monday lunchtime.

I wish you well in your efforts to show the Commonwealth how it can contribute to the effort of ensuring that our young people are empowered and engaged so that they can become active and effective citizens.

I wish you well, because all our futures depend on it.